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It was a murder that wrenched the hearts of New Yorkers and baffled the city’s best detectives and prosecutors for two decades.

On a summer day in 1991, the body of an emaciated 4-year-old girl was found naked and bundled with twine inside a filthy cooler near the Henry Hudson Parkway.

Investigators called the girl “Baby Hope” — and on Saturday their own never-flagging hopes were fulfilled when they finally cracked the case.

The turning point came this summer, in a laundromat, when one woman overheard another woman say that years ago her little sister had disappeared.

Angelica Ramirez’s name has been put on the headstone of Baby Hope.Photo: Lorena Mongelli

The first woman had also seen one of the “Baby Hope” fliers police continued to post, and called the cops.

The tip led to the arrest of Conrado Juarez, 52, who sources said was a Mexican illegal alien dishwasher at the Bleecker Street restaurant Pesce Pasta.

Juarez was the girl’s cousin, and was staying with her in a crowded Astoria apartment, officials said.

Now in custody for murder, he has made what sources called a detailed confession to sexually assaulting and smothering Anjelica Castillo — the girl in the cooler’s real name.

Juarez told cops that on the night of her death, he came home drunk, according to Jerry Giorgio, a former detective on the case who has seen the confession.

“It was nighttime, and she was in the hallway for some reason — maybe she was going to the bathroom,” Giorgio said. “He said he just took her by the hand and she went with him.”

“She may at one point have started to yell or scream, looking for help. That’s when he put the pillow over her face.”

A poster soliciting information in the case of Baby Hope, who died in 1991.Photo: AP

Juarez told cops it was his now-deceased sister, Balvina Juarez, who suggested they put the body in a cooler and take it by livery cab to Washington Heights, where it would rot for more than a week, according to a source.

“A tip produced a lot of investigative work, and with great detective work we were able to track people down and interview them,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

Cops recently tracked down Anjelica’s mother, also a Mexican immigrant, in early August and used a ruse to get her to lick an envelope, a source said. Late in September, DNA testing confirmed her maternity of the tragic tot, the source said.

The mom has nine other children by three men, and never reported her child missing. Finally confronted by investigators, she blamed the father, who had custody at the time, said one law-enforcement source. The girl was being cared for by her dad’s sister, who was Juarez’s mother.

“She’s a piece of s–t,” one law-enforcement source said of the mother. “She tried to put all responsibility on the father.”

Law enforcement sources believe she kept silent for fear of deportation; she told cops she feared the “abusive” father.

Baby Hope’s funeral in 1991.Photo: Michael Schwartz

Anjelica’s sister, now in her 20s, told police she remembers traveling to Mexico with her father after leaving the girl with her mother, police sources said. She never saw her ­sibling again, she told police.

“Investigators never stopped searching for the person who ended this young girl’s life,” DA Cyrus Vance said, noting that the original prosecutor, Melissa Mourges, now heads the DA’s Cold Case Unit and is still on the case.

Juarez was ordered held without bail at his arraignment Saturday. His lawyer complained that he had been questioned without representation for nearly 14 hours.

People like this are a cancer to society. And what do we do with cancer? We isolate it, starve it and destroy it. I say we should deal with this cancer of society the same way we deal with it in our bodies. PREVENT IT OR DESTROY IT.

Very, very sad story. Had it not been for the woman in the laundromat being in the right place at the right time, this case would've likely never been solved. It's quite apparent Anjelica's family (other than her sister) could've cared less about what had happened to her. Just heartbreaking to think about it.

If found guilty (as charged) please don't place him in special isolated quarters, units and such. Don't place him on suicide watch and permit him mingling with other inmates. That'll save NY a nice lump of $$$$$.

Amazing that strangers cared more for the child than the entire family put together. This is a real-life illustration of the "Good Samaritan." Mourned by strangers, buried by strangers, avenged by strangers.

piece of garbage. Who could do something so terrible to a baby. Hope he rots in jail. And what about how the reports at the time said she was malnourished? What was wrong with her mother! And she never reported her missing! Poor little girl. Good work by the police though.

It's always easy to criticize the police. But let's give them all props for following this case through to it's sad conclusion. At least now this little angel has a name and a history, though a very sad one. These police officers bought her a grave, a marker and held a funeral attended by over 500 people. The lead detective bought her a lovely little dress to be buried in. She was treated better by these police officers in death than she had been her whole short life. Thank you officers for your care and kindness to this little angel.

There are so many missing points in this story! WTH? A mom lets her baby go missing and doesn't report it? Where was the father? How could the sister help him dispose of the body and never tell the mother/father what the hell happened?

truly agree with law enforcement that baby Hope mother is a piece of sh't. My childen well-being would come before me. I do not believe that she was afraid of deportaion why she did not inform police of the missing child. Millions of illegals living in US and most of us are aware of this. This was just a careless woman who only cared about opening her legs.

@RedMan The kid was born to illegal aliens, who never reported her missing. There was no DNA testing back then and even if there was the persons DNA who committed the crime would have had to be in the system. Usually if you find a child murdered a parent is out there looking for the child and they can take the investigation from there, go see other relatives, get the story from the parents of where the child was etc. This didn't happen with this case, the mom was an illegal who was also a piece of dirt according to a LEO source. So that is why it took this long and it is just dumb luck they solved this case at all. And hard persistent work, bravo to these cops and the original prosecutor.

@jack54 I am sure this loser is absolutely shocked that he got caught after all these years. His life is now over, enjoy the beatings that will surely come while you are in jail for the rest of your life.

@Laura Apollo This is all in the story. The mom didn't report it because (she now claims) the dad was abusive, or maybe just because she was an illegal immigrant

The dad fled to Mexico and hasn't been seen since, but presumably he didn't report it because (1) he never gave a damn about the kid anyway, as he had palmed her off on relatives, and (2) his relatives were the ones who did the dirty deed.

Not sure what you don't understand about the sister. Basically, she was an accomplice, so why would she tell anybody?

@Laura Apollo He is probably lying about the sister helping him but who knows, they are all losers apparently. I hope the sister in her 20's who was overheard in that laundromat is not living poorly. Then again I wonder if she ever went to the police to ask for help in finding her sister. Probably not or this case may have been solved a few years ago.

@Elle Definitely, especially since she lied that baby was with the father. The baby's sister says she left city with father and the baby was with the mom. Police did an awesome job all they had at the time was the body and no family to connect it to, no apartment to connect it to, no back story. The break was the sister in the laundromat saying her sister went missing. This effectively became a missing child report 20 years later.

I'm sure her sister probably wanted to go to the police-but perhaps thought no one would believe her. With a case this old, and only her recollections to go on, with no solid proof to back them up, I could see something like this happening.